PVFan
Fudgeitallologist
:bowdown:Ibanez TSA15H "Tube Screamer Amp"
Best deal out there as of this writing for under $750 US brand new. Maybe $1000 new. And it's a dual 6v6, oy! Pairs great with an EL84 like my Dr. Z.
Been doing some tube swaps and I'm in tone shock. Replaced the 2 stock preamps with a JJ and a Sovtek, removing the 2 simply labeled "CHINA". Left the 2 stock output tubes in there because they seem to be rocking stoutly. Besides, they're black. All black, like tinted windows. Can barely see the fire inside. It's just cool looking. Eventually I will allocate the best 6v6s I can for this amp, but, the tube swap of just the preamp tubes made the tone stack far more usable, it made the Tube Screamer sound 100% badass and "TS-familiar" thru the entire range of all 3 knobs dedicated to the stompbox built into this amp, and even the boost seems to work more like one would expect a straightforward but fairly transparent 6db boost to function.
All 6 knobs are smooth and fun and have linear sonic tapers to their travel. The panel is recessed. The 2 little switches (TS & Boost) are strong, and the big switches (Power and Standby) are chunky, and when you flip any of the 4 there is plenty of Snap! It feels and operates like a nice, overcrafted German machine or Japanese Zero. Almost frictionless operation to the knobs that invites experimentation. Everything is confident and authoritative. The headshell is tight, more solid than a lot of popular models that creak and groan when you pick them up and set them down. The white tolex and piping are beautiful. The green chassis is gorgeous.
The chassis is not the only thing that is green. The pedal for switching the TS & Boost on / off is made out of battleship armor and is the same green as the chassis. So is the cable for the footswitch. A nice, almost luminescent green (long cable, too. About 75 kilofeet. 1/4" plug on the end).
Even the Owner's Manual is the same GREEN.
Big, cleanish amp with built-in classic stompbox that can be more expensive by itself than this amp that actually includes one. Great sounds, huge crunch, but some really darn sweet tones to be easily found also, pentode/triode 15w/5w, an FX loop? Not a typical $299 offering in any way. American tone and legendary Japanese crunch that handily consumes the small amp competition under $750 American as of this writing.
I'm not going to get into the tones too much because I've gotten so many good ones with so many speakers and guitars. I will say my favorite tone by far with this amp is plugging straight-in with no pedals into 2 greenbacks and 1 alnico blue, with the TS ganked and the boost on. The first thing you think of when I say "Uber-Recto Junior" would be in the ballpark of the mountainous, articulate chunk-balls and fat leads I'm getting, except with far quieter operation.
The signal path looks like this:
- input > Tube Screamer > boost >
- FX send / return >
- 1st half of 12ax7 #1 >
- EQ >
- 2nd half of 12ax7 #1 >
- both halves of 12ax7 #2 >
- 2 x 6v6GT >
- OT with 5 output taps > :burnout:
... so if you plug your guitar into the FX loop's return, you're all tube, and the TS & boost are bypassed. I don't know if V2 is functioning as a splitter nor what the power amp's class of operation is. Web research says it is a "hybrid bias" design somewhere between cathode-biased and adjustable. No clue. Block diagram taken from owner's manual.
more:
bass, how low can you go? Death Row. Whutta brutha know.
wouldn't it be cool...?
For the price tag, it's the most bang for buck deal I've encountered in my life. I love it. 100% keeper that will always be useful and fun. Addictive to play as anything I've owned, and I can't emphasize enough how Ibanez *must* have been thinking "fun" even as they designed the interactive use. And mine has the misprint on the front panel. ;o)
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